Eh, HP has always worked fine for us. I have two sitting here, actually - one is an all-in-one from ~2009 that we printed our wedding programs on when it was new, and it still works fine, but ink is getting harder to find for it, and we had a scare with the irreplaceable print head a few years ago (I got it working, using HP’s “try this if you’re out of options, but it’s unlikely to work” directions, but we realized it was probably time to consider replacing it).
The other is a few years old and is one of the ones with the subscription service. We’ve had a good experience with it, and I spend less on ink than I did with the old one, but that upsets a LOT of people.
and I spend less on ink than I did with the old one, but that upsets a LOT of people.
I think it’s because you’re part of the minority who’s better off with the subscription. Almost everyone I know needs to print something once or twice a year, and only a few pages at that. That’s also the target market for HP to shove subscriptions down everyone’s throats.
The sad thing is that whether or not the subscription makes sense is simple math. The problem is that HP knows the math doesn’t work out for most people, which is why they ask you three to six times if you want the subscription during initial setup, and why the printers have a sticker over the USB port that will then only work a limited amount of times before you need to go through the wizard.
When you’re printing stuff regularly, the subscription makes a lot of sense. On the other hand, if you’re printing enough for the subscription to be a better option, you may be better off buying a laser printer instead. The upfront cost is higher, but they’re more reliable and often cheaper to refill in the long term.
First, it’s nice to get a reasonable response to my comment. Most of the responses about HP printers are people foaming at the mouth. Even a few here, in a thread meant to be funny, generated some of that.
Yeah, I might go with a laser next time. I’ve read that Brother makes a pretty good laser printer, and I see color models are like $250, which isn’t bad. We’ll see. No major rush right now. I would miss the flatbed scanner; I do use that (maybe as much as the printer) for random things.
Oh…haha…I just went to Brother’s site to look at one, and oh look, there’s a toner subscription service!
For what it’s worth, all of HP’s business hardware is very good, whether it’s printers or PC systems. It’s just the cheap consumer-oriented products that suck.
That’s my experience as well. Everyone absolutely hates HP laptops, for good reason, but I don’t think I’ve heard many people complain about the ProBook line unless their employees bought them the barebones i3 version.
Same is true with a lot more companies as well. Lenovo makes some terrible plastic waste with allegedly a computer inside, but some great Thinkpads that will last a decade of punishment.
I think there’s a pretty direct correlation between companies that everyone thinks are bad and companies that make cheap models. It’s probably why the general public likes Apple so much; of course you’ll have a great laptop when you spend 1500 dollars on it, they simply don’t make devices cheap enough that you would hate.
Meanwhile Acer is out there with their barely functional laptops containing chips not powerful enough to play Youtube videos yet power hungry enough to overheat, for prices lower than a week’s groceries. I’m sure their top of the line models are pretty good too, if they even make those, but everyone knows them for their cheap hardware.
You think that’s bad? Mention you use a HP printer sometime. I dare you to try it.
😭
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Eh, HP has always worked fine for us. I have two sitting here, actually - one is an all-in-one from ~2009 that we printed our wedding programs on when it was new, and it still works fine, but ink is getting harder to find for it, and we had a scare with the irreplaceable print head a few years ago (I got it working, using HP’s “try this if you’re out of options, but it’s unlikely to work” directions, but we realized it was probably time to consider replacing it).
The other is a few years old and is one of the ones with the subscription service. We’ve had a good experience with it, and I spend less on ink than I did with the old one, but that upsets a LOT of people.
I think it’s because you’re part of the minority who’s better off with the subscription. Almost everyone I know needs to print something once or twice a year, and only a few pages at that. That’s also the target market for HP to shove subscriptions down everyone’s throats.
The sad thing is that whether or not the subscription makes sense is simple math. The problem is that HP knows the math doesn’t work out for most people, which is why they ask you three to six times if you want the subscription during initial setup, and why the printers have a sticker over the USB port that will then only work a limited amount of times before you need to go through the wizard.
When you’re printing stuff regularly, the subscription makes a lot of sense. On the other hand, if you’re printing enough for the subscription to be a better option, you may be better off buying a laser printer instead. The upfront cost is higher, but they’re more reliable and often cheaper to refill in the long term.
First, it’s nice to get a reasonable response to my comment. Most of the responses about HP printers are people foaming at the mouth. Even a few here, in a thread meant to be funny, generated some of that.
Yeah, I might go with a laser next time. I’ve read that Brother makes a pretty good laser printer, and I see color models are like $250, which isn’t bad. We’ll see. No major rush right now. I would miss the flatbed scanner; I do use that (maybe as much as the printer) for random things.
Oh…haha…I just went to Brother’s site to look at one, and oh look, there’s a toner subscription service!
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For what it’s worth, all of HP’s business hardware is very good, whether it’s printers or PC systems. It’s just the cheap consumer-oriented products that suck.
Same thing with Dell
That’s my experience as well. Everyone absolutely hates HP laptops, for good reason, but I don’t think I’ve heard many people complain about the ProBook line unless their employees bought them the barebones i3 version.
Same is true with a lot more companies as well. Lenovo makes some terrible plastic waste with allegedly a computer inside, but some great Thinkpads that will last a decade of punishment.
I think there’s a pretty direct correlation between companies that everyone thinks are bad and companies that make cheap models. It’s probably why the general public likes Apple so much; of course you’ll have a great laptop when you spend 1500 dollars on it, they simply don’t make devices cheap enough that you would hate.
Meanwhile Acer is out there with their barely functional laptops containing chips not powerful enough to play Youtube videos yet power hungry enough to overheat, for prices lower than a week’s groceries. I’m sure their top of the line models are pretty good too, if they even make those, but everyone knows them for their cheap hardware.
No way, Only Brushes and paint for me. Of course I steal it cause why should I pay for it?
Trigger warning:
I have an HP inkjet printer attached to my Windows 11 machine playing YouTube Premium in Chrome without an ad blocker.
Edit: it’s a joke, people.
How else are you supposed to print out your favorite videos?
Has HP started blocking ad-blockers? Seriously it wouldn’t surprise me.
Well owning a HP inkjet is an objectively stupid thing to do.
Thanks for proving my point!
Using an HP printer is like playing Russian Roulette with a ton of loaded bullets. I say this as someone with multiple HP printers.